Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin was born on 24 December 1971, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to his mother, Nereida Morales, who was an accountant and his father Enrique Martín Negroni who was a psychologist. His parents divorced when he was two; his father remarried. Martin grew up in a Catholic home and was an altar boy until he joined Menudo. His paternal great/4 grandfather Antonio Francisco Negroni Mattei born Rogliano, Cap Corse, Corsica, emigrated to Puerto Rico in 1822 and died 1861 in Yauco, Puerto Rico.
Ricky Martin rose to fame as a member of the Latin American boy band Menudo after which he became a solo artist in 1990. He is considered a major star in the world of Latin Pop and is considered to have opened the doors for some of his fellow Latin American singers.
Martin has been nominated one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine and its sister magazine People en Español in 2000 and 2006 respectively.
In the past Ricky stated he was in love with Mexican TV host Rebecca de Alba, with whom he had an off and on again relationship for over 14 years. They even talked of starting a family together. And at one point Ricky Martin planned on proposing. However with the release of “Life”, Martin confirmed he and De Alba had parted ways.
During the Livin’ la Vida Loca era, Martin’s personal life went under the microscope due to his large gay following and he was constantly questioned about his sexual orientation. Neither avoiding the questions nor answering that he is straight stopped the gay rumors. In the magazine Plus 7 Days he said: “I am a modern man, live a full life, do not feel any barriers inside myself,” Ricky says. “I perceive the contemporary world as an open forum, where nothing is taboo except criminal activity. If I were gay, why not admit it? … I am a normal man. I love women and sex. I am a real hot-blooded Puerto Rican, but I have never been attracted by sex with a man.”
In The Sunday Express on the gay rumors Martin said: “What are you going to do? I don’t have a problem with homosexuality. I’m gay-friendly—I’m not gay.”
In June 2009, Martin spoke about his sexuality in an interview with Hispanic magazine TV Aqui, reportedly hinting that he was bisexual. He stated that his “heart could belong to a woman or a man”. Later reports refuted this as a publicity stunt by TV Aqui. The reliable gay publication The Advocate revealed in an article “Ricky Martin Coming Out A Lie”: “Last week, via a leaked cover line and a vague Twitter post, Puerto Rican magazine TV Aqui suggested that Ricky Martin had inched toward the closet door in its latest issue by saying his heart “could belong to a man or a woman. Now, with the issue on newsstands, it turns out the magazine cover text and Twitter post were nothing more than a ploy to get people to buy the magazine — because that isn’t what he said at all. In translated text of the video footage, Martin says: “Eh, the heart of Ricky Martin? Look, whether it has or doesn’t have a male owner or a female owner, I have never spoken about that topic, so don’t…” Furthermore, a reporter from the Los Angeles–based Examiner.com reached out to TV Aqui editor Saudy Rivera to ask if Martin himself had actually said that he is bisexual. Rivera said that he hadn’t.
